State-Federal Partnership
Environmental protection efforts began in the early days of the oil and natural gas industry. In fact, States began implementing requirements to case and cement wellbores to prevent possible contamination of groundwater supplies.
In Pennsylvania, home of our nation’s first commercial oil discovery, early regulation of energy production dates back to the late 1880s. The same is true for New York. Later, as massive new finds in Texas (Spindletop) and Oklahoma (Bartlesville-Dewey Field) shifted the industry’s attention – and the nation’s – further west, regulatory bodies such as the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and Texas Railroad Commission were created to protect the public interest and oversee the safe development of American energy. Today, the States continue to implement new protection requirements based on location-specific conditions and the development of new technolgies.
Over time, the federal government also found a proper role to play, using landmark energy and environmental laws to forge cooperative relationships with state and local regulators. It’s a relationship that’s been in place for more than three decades. Unfortunately, it’s one that could become decidedly one-sided if recent efforts in Congress to expand and distort the law succeed.
In a fundamental way, America’s energy supply future finds itself today at a crossroads. Secure, homegrown energy will be a critical piece of an overall transition to better, cleaner and more efficient energy future. But, with production from existing natural gas wells declining at an average rate of 30 percent each year, additional production will be needed to keep up with our nation’s current energy needs, much less meet the expected future demand.
Quite simply, those future needs will not be met without a regulatory system that’s fair, straightforward, and operated on the ground, by experts in the states. What follows is a list of decades-old, federal laws and regulations that some would like to see used to undermine that state-federal partnership. For more detailed information, read the Project BRIEF report on the State-Federal Partnership.
1974: Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)
Original Intent: Set standards for public water supply and protect groundwater.
New Target: Hydraulic fracturing
How: Empower federal EPA with authority to pre-empt states in regulating critical well stimulation technology under SDWA’s Underground Injection Control program
1976: Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
Original Intent: Set standards for disposable waste management
New Target: Existing regulatory programs for drilling fluids and produced water
How: The original law was intended to regulate “low-volume, high-toxicity wastes.” Oil and natural gas production’s “high-volume, low-toxicity” wastes, such as drilling fluids and produced water, are managed through long-standing, state programs. Efforts could undermine this sound system.
1980: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund)
Original Intent: Provide federal authority to create federal liability for the clean up and remediation hazardous substance releases.
New Target: Small, independent oil and gas producers
How: Although oil and natural gas producers were initially and intentionally excluded from the scope of CERCLA, new legislation would extend its regulatory reach, imposing sweeping liability on family-run energy operations for the sins of 50s-era industrial and chemical manufacturers.
1986: Toxic Release Inventory (TRI)
Original Intent: Compel large-scale chemical and manufacturing facilities to share information on use of hazardous chemical emissions in mostly urban population centers.
New Target: Oil and natural gas producers
How: Even though Section 313 of the law specifically directs Congress to focus the scope of new regulation on high-risk industrial facilities, some in Congress would like to see TRI extended to oil and natural gas producers despite EPA’s 1995 determination that these operations should not be covered.
1987: Clean Water Act (CWA) amendments
Original Intent: Provide standards and enforcement mechanisms to improve our nation’s water.
New Target: Oil and natural gas production construction activities
How: Section 323 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 clarified the intent of CWA, excluding oil and gas operators from having to obtain federal EPA permits for discharging uncontaminated storm water. Efforts to overturn that exemption are targeting Capitol Hill.
1990: Clean Air Act (CAA) amendments
Original Intent: Set standards to improve our nation’s air.
New Target: Small, independent wellsite operators
How: Current law prohibits EPA from combining multiple oil and gas production operations for the purpose of regulating small, stationary production sites. Opponents of this policy would like to see this policy over-turned, opening the door to new federal regulatory authority over the wellsites by adding enough wells together to meet the federal regulation threshold.
